Adams, Park and Gregory: Photographs 1910s - 1950s

This display celebrates the recent acquisition of a group of photographs by Gilbert Adams (1906–96), Bertram Park (1883–1972) and Yvonne Gregory (1889–1970). They join a much larger archive of prints previously donated by Park and Gregory’s daughter June Mardall and by Rosalind and Gilbert Adams.

Gilbert Adams, the third generation of a family of photographers, opened his first photographic business in Reading in 1934. He was active in the promotion of the Royal Photographic Society and in 1949 was made a Council Member. Adams had began his photographic career assisting his father Marcus Adams (1857–1959) and his partner Bertram Park in a business that Park had originally set up in 1916 with his wife, the miniature painter Yvonne Gregory.

Thanks to the financial help of Lord Carnarvon, Park and Gregory opened their first studio off Piccadilly in Dover Street. In 1919 Marcus Adams, joined them to form a third partner operating a children’s studio. Known as ‘The Trinity of Dover Street’ Park, Gregory and Adams worked together within the same firm but in their own distinctive studios until 1958. This arrangement allowed them to work independently but with shared printing and dark room facilities. They are best known for their portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with their daughters the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.